"I often have hours of sleepless nights. What a godsend ICC is then! There is always a companion somewhere in the world to keep me company over a game." — Peter Brooker
"quietplay" is one of the variables you can set. It determines what
types of communication from other people you will see while you are
playing a game.
If you do "set quietplay 1", then while you're playing a game you will
not receive shouts, sshouts, channel tells, or kibitzes from observers,
and you won't receive personal tells except from admins or from your
opponent.
If you do "set quietplay 2", you will also block "say", "tell", and
"kibitz" from your opponent, in addition to the things that are blocked
above.
There are other variable settings that may also result in blocking
some communications.
Quietplay only has an effect when you are playing a game. When the
game ends, you will see whatever you normally see, as determined by
your other variables, such as shout, sshout, etc. Quietplay does
not work during "examined" games.